homeade nugget pendants

[strickman]

took my small flake and dust ,melted it and made my own pedants.first one was with rock salt,

 

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[JOE(USA)]

strickman,

Hey, I like the looks of that, but I think my lady would like it even more. Could you tell me how you went about doing it? Can something other than rock salt be used, like quartz? Joe

 

[Lookin]

That is pretty cool. Did you coat the salt with gold?

 

[strickman]

took the gold ,melted it making sure not to get to hot added borax to keep down fire scale and shield gold ,used a graphite stick to pull out impurities ,while keeping it hot ,quickly pour on VERY DRY rock salt (cannot have any moisture-none-when casting gold moisture can make it vaporize and explode--------you do not want to wear it!!!!!!!!!!) after it cools rinse with water the rock salt will dissolve leaving lots of character .there are other methods of doing this but i preffered this method for making unique pendants .you can cast directly in water but i don't like this method they are smoother and don't have the character that i'm looking for .you can use jewelers charcoal ,(not reg.) but is more expensive and harder to get.carve out the opposite of what you want ,and cast .i have done several this way and they turned out o.k.,i tried to upload them but couldn't get file size right .but rock salt nugget looked the best .i have gotten more compliments on it than any other .and looks more natural,since i was using natural gold (all from west ga.) i wanted it to look more natural.i will try to resize pics of others later.

 

[strickman]

bottom 2 were cast on charcoal ,top one on rocksalt

 

[bill-USA]

Nice looking pieces of work. Well done!

 

[strickman]

Thanks Bill, I've had a little practice. made 30 or 40 of them .

 

[downhome47]

Real nice Strick!!! The salt really does give them a lot more character.. When (if) I get enough together, I'll give ya a call for more info. Real nice job!!

 

[strickman]

thanks ,,,,,,,,get you up a pile !

 

[rebel003]

great job, how much gold did you use creating the first one?

 

[strickman]

about an oz. ,it was a little over an ounce when finished . I wore out to a gig one night ,in between I bent over to adjust my snare -the pendant got caught on my snare .It had a thin part near the top ,witch broke . I soldered another bezel on it and like pictured is about 3/4 of an oz.

 

[rebel003]

sent you a pm.

 

[strickman]

might charge a prospecting trip

 

[strickman]

pm sent

 

[Snarkie]

Sure is purty.

Definitely a lot more character than my silver keychain, which was cast in fireplace ashes.

 

[Macklin]

Those are nice looking strickman . Do you put the eyelet things on after you make the pendant or are they included in the pouring part ? Do you make chains to go with them too ?

 

[strickman]

I put the bezels on later ,right before last cleanup and polish. Never made any chains ,not really set up for that. I solder the bezels on with 14kt. solder.

 

[Macklin]

Thanks for the answer strickman . How would you go about making a chain if you wanted to try it ? Would there be some kind of mold or would you have to put it togeather piece by piece ? How is it done ? or How would you do it ? Do you make jewelry professionally ?
Sorry if I have asked to many questions .

 

[strickman]

I'm no professional .... I wanted to be able to make something from the mud to a finished piece . Got tired of getting screwed years ago ! So I found out the easiest way to accomplish this . I had a good friend that knew a little and he showed me a lot. I have never tried to make a chain ,seems to me you would have to have more specialized tools and equipment for that .Plus it would be very labor intensive . The way I make things ----no two are alike ...... Kinda sounds poetic , and a little more artistic .l.o.l. But that was what I was going for . Now that I think about it you could buy heavy gold wire and make a chain . But would still be labor intensive. One day I might make a video (no promise just a thought) showing start to finish . I have made them for family ,loved ones and even a friend or 4 .I have thought of making a decent sized coin .Something rustic with a hand hammered look to it .